The Sun emits 10 trillion times the energy consumed on Earth. Even with fractional efficiency of the collection sats and receivers, we could free ourselves from oil dependance.

The Japanese space agency, JAXA, has been providing steady support over the past decade for their Space Solar Power System (SSPS). The goal is to launch a geostationary satellite by 2030 that could supply 500,000 homes on Earth with a gigawatt of power.

Currently, JAXA researchers are looking at both microwaves and lasers as possible options for beaming the energy down.

"The technology for microwave transmission is more advanced, since it is based on current communication satellites," said Susumu Sasaki, a manager at JAXA's Advanced Mission Research Group.

The US has its own plans

"If you decide to go now with today's technology, you're talking about the same cost as ground-based solar," Mark Hopkins, senior vice president of the National Space Society said, which is around 30 cents per kilowatt-hour.

That's still too high, according to Hopkins, but he thinks costs will continue to come down, especially if development dollars start coming in. The Pentagon-sponsored report offered a roadmap for how to build a 10-megawatt test satellite over the next 10 years for $10 billion.

But where that money will come from is hard to say. According to Hopkins, NASA sees this as an energy application and the Department of Energy sees this as a space enterprise.

"There are bureaucratic problems finding a home for this project," he said.

Someone will do it, and in the process make more money than all the oil barons could dream.

So the GOV places a power generation in SPACE, and RENTS the power to corps that SELL the the Cits...and we ALL GET SCREW'D..

I don't disagree with you ECA but isn't this exactly what the U.S. brand of capitalism is all about and isn't it functioning perfectly?

The government fleeces poorer citizens to generate wealth, then hands the wealth over to fabulously wealthy corporations, so they can generate even more wealth by once again fleecing the poorer citizens, then they hand all the booty over to the CEOs and other, wealthier citizens, who own stock in the corporations.

I mean, isn't this the way the system was designed to work (by the wealthier citizens)?

It seems to me there's only a problem if you're not a wealthy citizen - or if the citizens who own stock in the international corporations aren't U.S. citizens (like, if they're China).